Thinking about Jesus and Walmart.

“We’re going to Walmart for retail-inspired spiritual formation?” Jane asked. “Is it a case study in what not to wear for becoming like Jesus?”

I had started talking with her about spiritual formation a couple weeks earlier. I told her about my idea of building reflection about spiritual formation in visits to Target instead of visits to a classroom. What I hadn’t told her was that I knew that among some Target people, Walmart was socially unacceptable.

“So what do you think Jesus wore when he went shopping?” I asked.

“That’s the oddest question,” she said. “How could we even answer that?”

“And where, exactly, would Jesus shop?” I said.

“I have no idea,” she said. “Did he even need to shop? I mean, he could multiply fish and bread, and he could transform water, so did he do shopping?”

“At least once, his disciples were grabbing grain while walking through a field because they were hungry,” I said. “Remember when Becky was talking about that? So I’m sure that he didn’t always do miracles for food. And he taught his disciples to ask the father for bread daily. And he regularly stayed at people’s houses for food and he never turned down a dinner and he talked often about the gap between the rich and the hungry, coming down on the side of the hungry.”

Jane was quiet for a minute. “So was Jesus actually poor?”

“He was acutely aware of the needs of the people on the edges of society,” I said. “He noticed and healed beggars. He noticed and mentioned widows. He noticed and touched sick and dead people. He noticed and celebrated children. He noticed and talked to Samaritans.”

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